Before the Blossoms
by Sakura Nightingale
Summary: Which genius was it who decided sitting on top of one's ankles was a proper way to sit? Whoever it was, they must have been slightly masochistic, but Naruto knew he'd never forgive himself if he missed this ceremony. NaruSaku, slight GaaOC. ONESHOT


Hey, guys! Thanks for reading my fanfic. Now, I must say now that I haven't watched or read Naruto in like... _forever_. I haven't really had the time for it lately. Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm still stuck at just before the end of Part 1... That said, I'm really just relying on fanfictions I've read before and the Internet when it comes to characterization. I was really hesitant while writting this fic because, while I think some characters are pretty easy to write, others are just plain difficult. I guess it also helps that they're older here (17 or 18) so I can just write it off as them changing themselves or maturing, but I think I should still abide by most of their characteristics. Also, yes, there is an OC here, so I ask that you keep an open mind. I really tried not to make her Sue like, but the reader is only introduced to her here, so it's kind of hard to know what she's about just yet. When I ask that you keep an open mind, I mean that I hope you can read this without the assumption that most female OCs end up Mary Sues or else, at least in your mind, the vague, indecisive details I'm giving might sway you to one side. Hopefully, I'll find time to write another fic with her in it so you can get more concrete details and thus, make an accurate judgement. :) As I said before, this isn't exactly a romance fic persay, but there are some NaruSaku elements and some GaaOC. This is my first one-shot by the way... Anyway, without further ado, here it is!

**DISCLAIMER:** Wow, people still write these? XD Anyway, I own nothing other than my own OCs. I don't own the Land of Honey/Mitsu no Kuni, but I do own Hanagakure and its inhabitants.

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**~Loneliness and Convenience~**

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Which genius was it who decided sitting on top of one's ankles was a proper way to sit? Whoever it was, Naruto mused, they must have been slightly masochistic.

The blond ninja sighed and glanced at Sakura on his right, all pretty in her cherry blossom themed formal kimono. The strangely angelic look her hair, make up, and clothing gave her brought a warm smile to his face. Seeing the pink haired kunoichi beside him seemed to ease the pain in his ankles slightly.

It was a beautiful spring day and Naruto couldn't help but lament about not being outside to enjoy the weather, but he knew this was far more important. Frolicking in the sun and breathing the fresh spring air, which was tinted with the smell of new blooming cherry blossoms, was a great way to spend the afternoon, but the main reason for his being here in this rather large Shinto shrine was to support his friend as he opened a new chapter in the book of his life. Yes, this was definitely more important. Besides, Naruto would never forgive himself if he missed this ceremony.

The boy looked up the alter past the rows of other shinobi just in time to see Gaara, fully dressed in a men's black wedding kimono, and his new young wife use each of their lit candles to light a fire in a small gold dish filled with some sort of flammable liquid. The two of them sat facing the dish and their audience. Behind Gaara sat Temari and Kankuro, both siblings dressed for the occasion, along with the Sunagakure elders. Behind the bride, a girl two years Gaara's junior named Kanzashi Fue, sat her own family, the Kanzashi clan of Hanagakure led by Fue's mother, Kanzashi Kikuya. Besides Lady Kikuya and her husband, Lord Genji, Fue's older sisters, Hatsuyo and Oyuki, her older male cousin, Hideaki, and a few other cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents who Naruto had never met were there to represent the entire clan. Each of the other Kage in their respective robes were perched in the very front row and on either side of them were the royal families of both the Land of Honey and the Land of Wind. Lady Kayo, Naruto realized, was among the Land of Honey's royal family. Along with the village people who sat in the back, most from either Sunagakure or Hanagakure, Naruto was surprised they could all fit comfortably in the shrine.

_So this is it_, the Uzumaki boy thought as Gaara and Fue took an oath in front of the flame to protect both the people of the Land of Honey and the Land of Wind with their lives. Lee, who sat on Naruto's left in a new teal changshan with red trim, was trying to contain his tears of joy. Beside him, Tenten, in a pink lotus-pattern qipao with her hair in a Western style formal updo, exchanged a slightly amused glance with Naruto before gently patting her emotional friend on the shoulder. _Gaara's the first of my friends to get married. Who'd have thought?_

Even as he sat in his place, his ankles crying to be in another position, Naruto was still a little surprised with the thought that the young Kazekage was actually going to become someone's husband. In the past, it had been tradition that Kage were to either marry as soon as they became adults or as soon as possible, but in recent years, most people didn't pay much attention to that custom. Lady Tsunade wasn't married, and as far as Naruto knew, no one got on her back over it. Although he knew Sunagakure was a bit more firmly rooted in tradition than Konohagakure was, Naruto still expected Gaara to remain single if not celibate. Women were never really high on his list of priorities, and even if he'd ever wanted a girlfriend, he would never have the time to meet a girl let alone date one. The blond shinobi was pretty sure that his friend wouldn't even care about it being "unproper" that a Kage his age should not have a wife. On top of all that, Naruto realized, in all his eighteen years, Gaara had never even so much as kissed a girl and yet here he was, about to make a life-long commitment to one he'd only just met at the omiai three weeks prior. Even the other two sand siblings were completely confused about their younger brother's decision and had tried to talk him out of it. Gaara had made it seem as though he was only going through with this to put his people at ease. He told them he didn't really care for marriage and was indifferent to the whole situation, so marrying a complete stranger was fine. There was something about that explanation that just didn't sit right, but when Naruto thought about it later, it actually made sense that Gaara would go through with this. Not a single person in Sunagakure really knew their Kazekage's true self. They were all quite friendly to him, but Gaara really had few real friends among them and he knew that building any sort of relationship would take a while. Most of the villagers meant well and cared for his well-being, but close relationships would take more time to manifest. Finding love, as one might imagine, would be a far more difficult - if not impossible - task. Naruto could definitely imagine Gaara becoming quite lonely if he spent the rest of his life by himself, althought he would never show it. Something told the blond shinobi that beneath his exterior, one of his friend's worst fears was being alone, living alone, and dying alone. Perhaps he needed a sort of safety net - someone who was tethered to him so that even if they ended up hating each other, they would still at least be together. Maybe that's why Gaara agreed when he was approached about the idea of an arranged marriage.

That was how Lady Kikuya came into the picture. Hanagakure, a ninja village located in the Land of Honey, was by no stretch of the imagination very powerful. They had no Kage (although the inhabitants unofficially reffered to Lady Kikuya as their Hanakage) and were not known for having any specialty or unique abilities. When Lady Kikuya became leader of the village, she acted swiftly and began using her shinobi's strengths to compensate for their weaknesses. The ninja there were trained to use their entertainment skills in conjunction with ninja skills. This made them masters of disguise able to be seen and unseen at the same time. The Kanzashi clan itself for example, whose kunoichi also trained as geisha and shinobi also trained as hokan, have been taught by Lady Kikuya herself how to conceal up to 200 weapons in their kimono and use "full body hand signs" (which basically look like traditional dance) that are used to cast jutsu without others knowing. The Kanzashi clan have trained themselves to use traditional arts, such as music and calligraphy, in warfare. That family in particular also possessed a secret genjutsu called Karyukai which created such realistic illusions as they strummed their shamisens or blew into their shakuhachi that their opponent would not realize what they were seeing was not real until it was too late.

After producing formidable ninja, Lady Kikuya's next task was to create alliances with other villages. She knew that this would be difficult considering her village's reputation, but Lady Kikuya knew how to use her resources. She had three young, attractive daughters, each of them trained geisha (save for Fue, who was still a maiko under her older sisters). Her plan was to have each of them marry a village leader or a leader's clansman in order to create ties between the two villages. Beautiful, talented Hatsuyo was married off easily to the son of Tanigakure's leader, and Oyuki, who was also quite beautiful, became the wife of Torigakure's leader. When Lady Kikuya heard that Sunagakure's young Kazekage was looking for a wife, she offered her only unmarried daughter, Fue along with a dowry to compensate for her clumsiness which hindered her performance as a kunoichi. Luckily, Gaara's matchmaker wasn't specifically looking for someone who was particularly impressive in that department, but the dowry was accepted as a wedding present. It was repayed with a wedding obi and a summer kimono.

And so here they were, Gaara in his black kimono, haori and hakama, and Fue, in her white wedding kimono, as they concluded the oath and bowed on their knees to their audience. Their respective families followed and the priest instructed the wedding party to do the same. After that, the priest announced a quick recess while the bride and groom were ushered off to get dressed for the reception. Naruto nearly fell backwards as he quickly removed his poor ankles from under his sore bottom and groaned in pain. Sakura let out a frustrated sigh.

"Naruto, can't you be a little more graceful than that? We're at a wedding!"

"Sorry, Sakura-chan," Naruto grinned nervously and scratched the back of his head. "I'm not used to sitting like that for so long."

The kunoichi shook her head at him and helped the boy stand up, ignoring his complaints about his feet having fallen asleep. She nearly dragged him away using strength that looked out of place for a girl her size and waved at both Lee and Tenten as they left. As people exited the shrine to get fresh air, some of them began dropping off envelopes containing varying amounts of money with their names written on the front to the miko in charge of managing the guest book. Sakura deposited her envelope as they passed.

"Hey, Sakura-chan," the blond shinobi said with a yawn, stretching his arms over his head and letting the loose sleeves of his formal dark kimono drop to his elbows. "What comes next at these things?"

"Well, next comes the reception."

Naruto looked surprised as they walked among the cherry blossoms. Other members of the wedding party began to socialize amongst themselves on the grounds of the shrine as they admired the pink flowers hanging from the trees. "I thought we already did that..."

"Nah, that was only the oath. Kage weddings are different from regular ones," the kunoichi explained. "They have the exchanging of the rings first, but only the family and clan members are allowed to attend. They're pretty much husband and wife already after that. Then the couple takes an oath to both their villages - everyone who was either formally invited or paid for access can go. Then comes the reception where the two joined clans are introduced, and we dance and play games and eat and such - again, everyone's invited to that too. Sometimes they have a separate time for pictures at some point, but that depends on what the couple decides."

Naruto nodded slowly. That sounded like a lot of things to plan, but he supposed that was why Gaara had hired someone else to do that part. Fue had a much larger impact on the planning than he did. She had insisted the wedding was to happen in the spring when hanami usually took place. It was because of the cherry trees that she had also wanted the reception to be outside. As the guests amused themselves and the wedding couple changed their outfits, a massive tent was being set up near the shrine. Naruto guessed there would be formal pictures after all as a team of photographers set up cameras, lights and other equipment. He remembered hearing that Gaara was indifferent to his then fiancee's ideas, totally fine with letting his wife-to-be do whatever she pleased. Oyuki had told Sakura and Ino in private that her younger sister seemed a little disappointed with her former fiance's lack of activity, but she was never one to make waves, so Fue tried to be happy with the fact that she had free reign over the wedding. But actually, Oyuki disclosed, Fue was kind of disappointed with a number of things.

Naruto, who had previously folded his arms behind his head, began to pull them back down to his sides. "She's disappointed...?"

Sakura nodded, looking up at the pale flowers. "That's what her sister told me." Then, she quickly turned to the teenager beside her, a serious expression on her face. "Naruto, don't tell anyone what I'm telling you right now, got it? Especially not Gaara."

"Of course I won't tell!" He was a little offended that she thought he'd actually tell the groom himself of all people about his bride's little secret. "Come on. Have I told anyone your secrets thus far?"

The girl stared at him for another minute before her expression softened into a smile. Sakura returned her gaze to the blossoms above her. "Oyuki-san says that Fue's really hesitant about marrying Gaara. She doesn't know why he's doing this. After all, Sunagakure doesn't really need an alliance with Hanagakure and Gaara's been acting like he doesn't care if he's married or not. Oyuki-san told me her sister expected for things to be a little awkward, but it seems Gaara has absolutely no reason for wanting to marry her. Fue's not even sure if he likes her. She said he was cold and distant at the omiai, and yet he still agreed." Sakura's expression changed to one of confusion. "Why _is_ he doing this? It doesn't make any sense..."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, it doesn't, but Gaara must have some reason. He doesn't just do things at random."

"But is he doing this for any right reason? Does he actually want this? I just don't get it."

"Well, Sakura-chan," Naruto came and stood beside her. "Gaara likes to seem emotionless, but I've come to realize that there's a lot more to him than that. I think that even though he's accepted that he'll always be different from other people, he still wants to be able to do all the things they can do. One thing that being that different prevents you from doing is finding love, getting married, starting a family - stuff like that... So maybe he's going through with this because he doesn't think he'll ever get another chance." The Uzumaki boy noticed his companion looking at him with surprised eyes. That look seemed to have a bit of awe mixed into it. It made him a little nervous. "Well, at least, that's what I think."

For the second time in her life, Sakura was left wondering when Naruto had grown up so much. The boy stared back up at the cherry blossoms to distract himself from her gaze. Realizing she was staring, Sakura averted her eyes and looked down at her geta before a warm smile crossed her face. "Well, Fue's a nice girl and Gaara can be nice once you get to know him really well, so let's hope they can learn to love and understand each other."

Suddenly, it seemed all the guests had gone. Naruto and Sakura turned to see them all huddled around the bride and groom, Fue in a more elaborately designed kimono and Gaara in his Kazekage robes. Some people were using their own cameras to take pictures while one of Fue's female cousins held up some of the longer parts of her dress so they would not touch the ground and become dirty. Naruto and the girl beside him went to join the crowd while the couple got set up in front of the professional cameras to get their pictures taken. It was then that the blond haired ninja finally noticed the ring on Gaara's finger. It was a men's gold wedding band with the flower insignia of Hanagakure engraved into it with some sort of a diamond trim. Fue's was probably almost the same, but with Suna's insignia instead. As the two of them stood together underneath a cherry blossom tree for their picture, Sakura's words from before echoed in Naruto's head. Maybe the two of them would find a way to understand each other. _No_, Naruto thought again with a smile_. They definitely will!_

_

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**~Gaiety and Familiarity~**

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Chouji swore he died and went to Heaven when he first set eyes on the makeshift banquet hall. Naruto made sure to separate his and Chouji's eating utensils just in case his became lost in the storm that would be his friend feasting. Beside Chouji was Neji, then Hinata, followed by Shikamaru and Ino, then Sakura and Naruto. The guests all sat at round tables with chairs (much to Naruto's pleasure). There were two main tables: one which was for the newly combined family and another for the Kage, Suna's elders and the wedding couple. Everyone stood and applauded as the new family was introduced. As Ino and Sakura chattered excitedly about this and that, shy Hinata occasionally offering her own input, the food was being served. Chouji completely cleaned his plate as expected. The datemaki was quite good, Naruto thought. The strangest part of the evening was when he saw both Gaara and Fue eating some kazunoko, which they did according to tradition, but the humor only came from the fact that the eating of such a dish represented the hope for future fertility. Something about the idea of the young Kage and his wife up to their armpits in children struck Naruto and Shikamaru as rather hilarious. Apparently, the fox and the deer weren't the only ones thinking along those lines. Ino, having taken notice of the small spectacle, leaned over and whispered quietly to Sakura - something about how weird it was to picture Gaara, stoic and serious as ever, totally coming undone during sex. Who knows? Maybe he was the wild type. If the elders' ideal of having at least five children was any indication, she added, Gaara would _have_ to be a real sex fiend.

While the two girls giggled at the possibility, the blond shinobi nearly choked on his sushi even though it was drentched in soy sauce. Shikamaru sighed and poured himself some more sake to drown the thought. The Hyuuga cousins exchanged confused glances while Chouji barely even noticed anything as he stuffed his face.

After dinner and desert, it was time for entertainment. The Kanzashi clan and the other inhabitants of Hanagakure got to do what they loved best: performing.

Kanzashi Hideaki, the first hokan Naruto had ever laid eyes on, put on an interactive, funny, clever one-man sketch in which he demonstrated what a typical day would be like in the married life of Gaara and his cousin. Kanzashi Genji, the bride's father and an accomplished kabuki, put on a short but exquisite play with his seven brothers. Next, Hatsuyo and Oyuki, along with their geisha and maiko cousins, led a traditional dance with musical accompaniment. The geisha, maiko and hokan of the Kanzashi clan then hosted games for the guests and handed out prizes to the winners.

And what wedding would it be if there was no throwing of the bouquet? This event usually got a tad ugly at normal weddings, but considering the fact that these specific women were trained in the ancient art of "_kill you 50 times with my bare hands_", it was considerably more horrifying. The moment Fue threw her bouquet of cherry, plum, and peach blossoms up into the air, the entire area where the group of kunoichi stood became a battleground of kunais, shurikens, and jutsu galore. The normal village women and Hinata (who prefered not to be in the midst of such violence) didn't even try to compete. In the ten seconds the flowers had been up in the air, clones had been striken and turned back into random logs, shurikens had lodged themselves into things (luckily, these things were relatively unimportant) and profanities had been thrown around like money when a rich heiress goes shopping. Gaara's non-existant eyebrows actually raised slightly at the scene. Lady Tsunade merely stared blankly at the carnage as some of her male colleagues chuckled to themselves. After having pushed a Hana kunoichi out of her way and steping on Ino's head when she dove to stop her, Tenten launched herself several feet into the air and almost had her goal in her grasp. The bouquet, however, in a cruel twist of fate, completely missed the angry mob of women and bounced off Kiba's head to land in his open arms. The dog boy stared at the floral thing as if it were some foreign object.

"The fuck...?" he muttered.

Naruto and a few other shinobi burst out with laughter while the female ninja sulked silently. Shino, who stood beside Kiba at the time, could do little to hide his own smirk. Even Akamaru seemed to giggle at his owner's serendipity.

"Kiba! It appears the next one to marry will be you!" Lee cheered.

"I bet they're going to be all pissy now," said Shikamaru, refferring to the looming dark cloud of kunoichi. "What a drag..."

"Nice throw, sis!" Kankuro yelled, thoroughly amused by the girls' misfortune. Temari, who was disappointed with her apparent loss and just about ready to strangle her laughing sibling, looked instead at her youngest brother's face and saw the tiniest spark of amusement in his green eyes. That was enough to make her forget the flowers.

Finally, the greatest musicians in Hanagakure began to play for the wedding party. Gaara and Fue got the first dance, the two of them displaying what they had been taught to do prior to their wedding day. The dance was supposed to represent the union of a mother goddess, Izanami, and a father god, Izanagi, or at least, that's what Sakura had said. Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at the end of their dance when Hatsuyo, releasing air she didn't realize she had been holding, thanked the gods her sister hadn't tripped or stepped on her new brother-in-law's feet.

When it was finally time to go, each of the guests got to take home a small decorated container of sand dango. The couple thanked their guests for coming and then everyone was off. Naruto and Sakura were some of the last to leave, which was quite fortunate as Naruto realized he had forgotten something.

"Ah!" he pulled an envelope full of money out of his kimono sleeve. "I forgot to give them this!"

Sakura looked surprised and searched for a miko, but the guestbook had already been put away. "Aw, Naruto! Ugh, I guess we'll have to give this to them directly."

Spotting the couple just as they were about to enter the change rooms, the two of them called after them to get their attention. Fue turned before Gaara did and, recognizing them instantly, smiled and waved.

"Sakura-san, Naruto-san!" she greeted them, happily. "Hey! Thank you so much for coming! Did you have a great time?"

The pink haired kunoichi smiled and bowed briefly before pulling a nervous looking Naruto forward. "Hey, guys! Congratulations! Naruto here just forgot to give the miko his envelope."

"Yeah. Sorry about that!" the shinobi grinned awkwardly and thrust the paper container at the blankly staring sand ninja. Gaara took the envelope a little too quickly, slicing his ring finger slightly. Blankly watching as the red liquid dripped out slowly, Gaara barely noticed his new wife's gasp.

"Gaara-san, you hurt yourself," she said as one hand took the envelope and the other gently grasped his larger hand. "You shouldn't let it get infected,". With that, she hesitantly placed the finger in her mouth. Sakura laughed a little inwardly at the fact that she was doting on him already and it became evident what type of wife she would be to the young Kazekage. Fue seemed eager to please and, lacking confidence, she was a bit of a pushover. With nothing to defend herself from his seemingly dangerous eyes, Fue might just break under Gaara's unintentionally cold attitude. He just might hurt her without even realizing it. Sakura's expression fell a little at this realization until she looked at Gaara and found his expression unreadable. His stare wasn't nearly as cold and naturally scrutinizing as it usually was. It was deep. Sakura couldn't quite explain it to herself, but it was as if he'd seen this scene somewhere before. Perhaps there was so hope for them yet. Naruto smiled and felt a tad more at ease with this and Sakura noticed, once again, that her friend had become a little less dense with age. Now finished what they'd come to do, the two ninja turned then to leave.

"Congrats again, you two!" Naruto said with a wave.

Sakura by his side, the both of them were about to make their exit until thier names were called.

"Naruto. Sakura," said Gaara, who had been pretty silent for a while until just then. The two in question turned to see him looking back at them. Naruto noticed his friends eyes seemed a little softer - something one would only pick up on if they knew him as well as he did. Gaara spoke again after a long pause. "Thank you for coming."

There was a brief moment of surprise before Sakura broke the silence and chimed, "Don't mention it! We wouldn't miss this for the world."

"That's right," agreed Naruto. "You're our friend after all, Gaara."

This put a small smile on the sand ninja's face. His little wife seemed pleasantly surprised by her husband's subtle show of emotion. Just then, one of the attendents approached the Kazekage.

"Gaara-sama, I do not mean to intrude, but it would be wise if we took Fue-sama to view her new living quarters," a tall man with black hair advised. "And I am sure the two of you and your fellow clansmen would appreciate some time to relax."

"Very well," agreed the young Kazekage. He nodded his goodbye to the two leaf ninja one last time before he, his associates, and his new wife took their leave.

* * *

**~Shoujo Manga~**

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Naruto had offered to walk Sakura home as he did on most days when neither of them were busy. He always enjoyed spending this time with her, even when it was awkward and neither of them said any thing at all for the entire trip. Spring nights were especially nice because they always seemed to put Sakura in a good mood. Naruto often liked to think she was blooming with the flowers that were her namesake and, like the blossoms, this particularly happy mood did not last forever, but when it was around, it was something to be enjoyed. Tonight was especially wonderful. Even though her entire body was tired from being active all day, Sakura absolutely loved spring weddings. The thought that Gaara might eventually open up to Fue made the hopeless romantic in her giddy with childish joy, and the boy beside her loved seeing her when she felt this way.

"You know, I'm really happy for those two," she sighed. "I mean, I guess I'm jumping to conclusions. Anything can happen. They could end up totally wrong for one another, but something about how he looked at her when she was cleaning his finger..." Naruto grinned at the fact that she also noticed Gaara's expression. "I really hope everything goes well for them."

Then the kunoichi frowned and looked up at the stars as they twinkled above them. "Although..."

"Hm?"

"I guess in real life, people aren't supposed to just find their true loves at random like that. I mean, if their lives ended up being all shoujo manga-y, what about the rest of us?"

The shinobi laughed. "Hey, Sakura-chan," he jested, poking at his friend. "Are you a little bit jealous of them?"

Suddenly, the spring blossom turned quickly into a winter oni in less them half a second as she swung her right arm straight toward his jaw. Luckily for Naruto, he'd known her too long and too well so he anticipated the attack, bending almost all the way backwards to dodge the shot. Looking triumphant for a second, Naruto chuckled at the look of shock on her face. This transformed back into anger as she swung her leg and knocked both his feet away, making him fall on his back onto the ground with an "ooph".

"I am _not_ jealous!" she retorted.

Naruto sighed, swung his legs in toward his chest, and using his arms to push himself off the ground, kicked upwards to land him in an upright position. Then, coming really close to her face, he said, "You know, you didn't have to trip me..."

"You were asking for it."

"I said, 'Sakura, please trip me'?"

"You know what I mean."

_Girls_, Naruto thought to himself as he pulled away from her. They continued to walk in silence, passing more trees, houses and Naruto's favorite ramen bar before reaching Sakura's street.

"Hey," the kunoichi looked up at the source of the sound beside her. "That shoujo manga-y stuff, or whatever you called it," he muttered. "I'm sure it'll happen to you one day."

The girl looked ahead of her, a warm smile coming to her face. "Well... I think maybe it already has..."

Naruto nearly choked on his own spit mid-swallow. Was Sakura trying to say she already had a boyfriend or a love interest? Why didn't she say anything? How come he's never met the bastard? Who was it? Rock Lee? Neji? Was she still in love with Sasuke? Who was it? "W-what?"

Knowing he misunderstood her, Sakura grinned mischievously. "Thanks for walking me home!" With that, she ran off in the direction of her house.

"Hey, Sakura-chan! Wait a sec! Come back!"

"See you tomorrow, Naruto-kun!"

"Sakura-cha~n!" the shinobi wined. "Wai~t!"

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And thus concludes my first finished one-shot. Hope you enjoyed! :D Please review and tell me what you thought!

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

1. The Naruto characters are all older in this fic. Sakura and the gang are all 18. Characters who were born after the spring, like Naruto, are 17-going-on-18. Gaara was born in January, so he's already a year older. As for the rest, well, you can do the math. lol

2. Fue is pronounced "FOO-eh" or "FOO-ay". Actually, I'm not 100% sure where the emphasis would be, but that's how I pronounce it. It means "flute" in Japanese. Kanzashi, I believe, should be pronounced "KAHN-zah-shee" and is a word used to describe those elaborate hairclips geishas use. The way that I think you're supposed to pronounce Hideaki is "HEE-day-ah-kee", but I always end up saying "hee-day-AH-kee"... :/

3. I realize not everyone will know all the terms used in this story. For that reason, I'm going to list them in order of occurence and try to explain them:

-changshan - formal Chinese dress for men.

-qipao - basically, a changshan for women. These are pretty fashionable even in Western countries nowadays.

-omiai - a meeting between two people who've been arranged to be married prior to the wedding.

-hokan - a "male geisha". Real hokan are actually a lot more like jesters in casual kimono than female geisha, but in my story, I wanted to make them somewhat of a hybrid. My hokan have the real-life hokan's knack with jokes and stories and the real-life geisha's beauty. My hokan kind of look like samurai without their armor, wear less elaborate make up than their female counterparts, and are also expected to be especially good at entertaining women. In real life, these men are also called taikomachi, but hokan is apparently a fancier word for them.

-Karyukai - in this universe, it's a genjutsu technique, but in the real-world, it's a fantasy reality that people like to believe geisha and courtesans come from. It translates as "World of the Flowers and Willows"

-datemaki - those cute little rolled omlettes people make in Japan. They're apparently a common wedding dish.

-kazunoko - herring eggs. Yes, they do apparently represent fertility.

-Izanagi and Izanami - both brother and sister and husband and wife, these two are the Shinto mother and father deities.

-oni - a Japanese monster. Kind of synonymous with the English word "ogre".

Sorry if I missed any, but I guess that's what Google's for. lol


End file.
